Cartoonists and freedom of speech

Protest in Mumbai about the arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi. Picture from The Hindu newspaper @ Procartoonists.org

The late editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette described the job of the cartoonist as follows:

“Good cartoonists are also the point men for the First Amendment, testing the boundaries of free speech.”

In his home country of the United States, the first amendment to the national constitution famously guarantees this right. It also does in India, one of the world’s other great democracies.

Of course, national jurisdictions vary in how they apply their laws, but Marlette’s assertion notes a role that editorial cartoonists tend to fulfil wherever and however they deliver their work.

This is why the news from India about the arrest for sedition of the Indian cartoonist Aseem Trivedi is worrying. Trivedi is a campaigner against corruption who works digitally and deploys social-media distribution tools that are principally made by US corporations.

We include the specific cartoon that brought his arrest below (the translation on the plinth is “Corruption alone triumphs”, a parody of the original text.) Trivedi’s drawings also frequently visually reference national Indian symbols and it seems that it is the offence derived from this that triggered his original arrest.

Trivedi corruption cartoon @ Procartoonists.org

It appears this morning that Trivedi is now to be released on bail, but as the conflict between national jurisdictions and pervasive digital distribution of words and pictures continues we can expect to see more of this sort of event even inside what is sometimes described as the “largest democracy in the world”.

We’d like to encourage all friends of cartoonists to note the petition organised here on behalf of Trivedi. Many of our members have already signed it.

If you have anything to add to our knowledge of this please do use the comments facility below. We expect to be returning to this subject.

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Disclaimer: Any opinion expressed here is that of the named individual and not that of the UK Professional Cartoonists' Organisation unless explicitly stated. Artwork attributed to a named author or publication on this diary should be noted by anyone linking to us from any other site. Thank you. If you wish to reproduce an image please contact the artist from here.